The topics of this blog are Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Duke of Richelieu, and the IDEAL CITY built on his command next to his magnificent CHÂTEAU on the borders of Touraine, Anjou and Poitou, in France.

Next week, the little town of Richelieu will host the visit of a 30-strong party from the City of London's TYLERS and BRICKLAYERS company, one of the city's hundred or so livery companies - compagnonnages in French. They will stay at the hotel, the Puits Doré - located in the market square - and make expeditions to local destinations, some within the cité idéale itself. They will sample the sumptious luxuries of the Touraine table.

They will bring the best wishes from the Lord Mayor of London

Alderman Roger Gifford

toMayor Hervé Novelli.

They are all welcome.

Below

one or two buttons that take you to pages that might help orientate the curious visitor:

Friday, 12 April 2013

The ideal town of Richelieu is packed with 17th century buildings large and small. In the small square called place Nicholas Lemercier, one of the more modest houses has just been restored with its façade completely renovated. It has a rather picturesque first floor gable window with an unusual semi-elliptical masonry cap. Perhaps this stonework has given problems of damp infusion, so over the years the roofers have constructed a simple tiled pitch on a timber sub-structure on the top to protect it.

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Apparently a Swedish pair have bought the Northern pepperpot of the western-side old town gate that leads towards the town's now-redundant station. We had assumed that this building was part of M. Deplaix's Renault garage - probably because of the huge Renault sign attached to its southern façade. But who knows? The residence that had been attached to the northern side of the pepperpot has been demolished leaving the old town wall more visible than before. Has Bâtiments de France required the demolition of this non-descipt later extension in return for permission to carry out the restoration of the 17th century pepperpot itself?

As spring 2013 finally arrives and the temperatures rise sufficiently to allow concrete laying, the new floor of the Halle has now been laid. Originally(1640) this floor would have been of simple beaten earth, and with all those animals must have been quite 'picturesque'. The 2013 solution is a modern version of beaten earth that is a bit stronger and more hygienic.

A big expansion joint bisects the plan at half-way - is this enough? There were insufficient expansion joints placed in the layout of the place du Marché paving and it is already showing cracks.

The level of the floor has been dropped to a lower and more 'authentic' level - rather as in Ur of the Caldees or Babylon, floor levels always rise so that heavy material does not have to be removed...

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what is the purpose of this web-site?

This web-log site is an English language sign-post to the current developments in this unique IDEAL CITY built originally for

Armand-Jean du Plessis,cardinal duc de Richelieu,

to designs of Jacques Lemercier and his brothers between the years 1631 and 1642 : to British readers in the rule of Charles I, and just before the English Civil War: to North Americans at the time of the French colonial initiatives in 'Acadie' (Nova Scotia) and of the English in Virginia.

The pretty walled and moated seventeenth century town of RICHELIEU remains today the most complete French urban design project of the age of King Louis XIII and the stories of Alexandre Dumas' THE THREE MUSKETEERS.

PLEASE send in a contribution by clicking on the 'COMMENTS' button at the foot of any of the pages.......

The older 'posts' or entries can be selected either by using the individual 'TOPICS' or 'ARCHIVE' buttons below, or by clicking on 'OLDER POSTS' at the foot of the page...... There are more than 590 posts there now.